National Triathlon Trio

 On 30^th and 31^st October, three Ashford school children competed in the National Triathlon Finals at the Aldersley Stadium in Wolverhampton. The three, Jessica Learmont, Alice Doughty and Charlie Vigar earned their places having competed in the regional qualifiers in September. Jessica Learmont came 22nd in Youth D and Alice Doughty came 21st in Youth C. Jess and Charlie both achieved new personal best times in their swim. Jess and Alice both shot very well gaining 73 and 76 out of 100. It was only the second shooting competition for Jess.

The Triathlon is part of the Modern Pentathlon in which competitors must swim, shoot and run. The Finals drew hundreds of competitors from all over Great Britain. Although Charlie Vigar swam a personal best in the 100m swim, an off-form shoot left him with a battle on his hands if he was to improve on his overnight position. This he duly achieved with a superb 1500m run in which he gained 6th place overall despite a determined challenge from his pursuers in the last 200m. Alice put in her best performance so far in her age group category coming 16^th in the shooting. Charlie, Jessica and Alice will now be setting their sights on the regional qualifier for the Schools Modern Biathlon competition at Medway Park on November 28th, an event Charlie won last year.